12 NJ Communities Receive Federal Dollars To Hire Cops

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Twelve New Jersey communities will receive a total of $20.8 million in U.S. Department of Justice Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant funding to hire police officers or avoid cuts to law enforcement personnel, U.S. Senators Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) announced Tuesday. The federal grant funding will provide New Jersey communities with the resources to put 78 officers on the streets, including 25 officers in Newark, 14 in Camden, and seven in New Brunswick.

“This funding will help make sure we have police on the beat and keep families in New Jersey safe from crime,” said Lautenberg, a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, which funds the COPS program. “State and local budgets are stretched thin and this funding will give Newark, Camden and other New Jersey communities a helping hand to put police officers back on the job. These federal COPS grants are critical to ensuring that neighborhoods in New Jersey are secure for the people who call them home.”

“This is great news for police departments across New Jersey that have been struggling for months with budget cuts and layoffs, even as they work as hard as ever to keep us safe. We have an obligation to support our police and I’m so pleased this critical funding is on the way,” said Menendez.

The COPS Hiring Program fully funds entry-level salaries and benefits for full-time police officers over a three-year period. Grant funding can be used to hire new officers, rehire officers who have been laid off and retain officers who are scheduled to lose their jobs as the result of budget cutbacks.

The following New Jersey communities have been awarded $20,780,027 in COPS Hiring Program grants: